Nylon is a designation for a family of synthetic polymers known as aliphatic polyamides, and is one of the most commonly used polymers. The chemical constituents of nylon include carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen. Types of nylons include nylon 6,6, that may be formed by reacting a diamine and a dicarboxylic acid so that amides are formed at both ends of each monomer, nylon 6 that may be made by a ring-opening polymerization of cyclic amides (lactams), and nylon 12 that may be produced from cyclododecatriene.
Nylons are designated by a numerical suffix that specifies the numbers of carbons donated by the monomers. For example, for nylons with a two-number designation, such as nylon 6,6 or nylon 6,12, the first number represents the number of carbons from the diamine monomer, and the second number represents the number of carbons from the diacid monomer. For nylons having a single number designation, such as nylon 12, the number represents the number of carbon atoms in the repeating monomer units.
Nylon 12 (polyamide 12) is a major component of tubings used in automotive brake and fuel lines. Nylon 12 has generally been produced from cyclododecatriene by converting the cyclododecatriene to laurolactam, which is a starting monomer for industrial production of nylon 12. Cyclododecatriene may be produced from butadiene as the raw material. In one method for the production of butadiene that may be considered non-environmentally friendly, the butadiene is derived from petroleum products. Further, an explosion in 2012 at an Evonik Industries plant in Germany that produces a large proportion of the world's supply of cyclododecatriene, resulted in a shortage of the starting materials, and generated concerns over a potential shortage of nylon 12 with the potential of halting of new automobile assembly worldwide.
Thus, there remains a need for environmentally friendly, scalable and cost competitive alternative approaches for producing nylon 12. The alternative approaches should utilize raw materials and methods that are environmentally friendly instead of relying on petrochemically derived raw materials. Such alternative approaches may additionally alleviate concerns over future problems with current production methods, such as that caused by the Evonik Industries explosion.